Esther Vilar
Template:Short description Template:Infobox writer Esther Margareta Vilar (born Esther Margareta Katzen, September 16, 1935)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> is an Argentine-German writer. She trained and practised as a medical doctor before establishing herself as an author. She is best known for her 1971 book The Manipulated Man and its various follow-ups, which argue that, contrary to common feminist and women's rights rhetoric, women in industrialized cultures are not oppressed, but rather exploit a well-established system of manipulating men.
Biography
Vilar's parents were jewish-German emigrants. They separated when she was three years old.
She studied medicine at the University of Buenos Aires, and in 1960 went to West Germany on scholarship to continue her studies in psychology and sociology. She worked as a doctor in a Bavarian hospital for a year, and has also worked as a translator, saleswoman, assembly-line worker in a thermometer factory, shoe model, and secretary.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Esther married the German author Klaus Wagn in 1961.<ref>Wünsch dir was (in German) Der Spiegel, December 27, 1971. Retrieved December 20, 2011.</ref> The marriage ended in divorce but they had a son, Martin, in 1964. Template:Verify source Concerning the divorce she stated, "I didn't break up with the man, just with marriage as an institution."<ref name="auto">Author Esther Vilar Lashes Out At Women Star-Banner, June 14, 1972. Retrieved December 20, 2011.</ref>
Work
The Manipulated Man (1971)
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} One of Vilar's most popular books is titled The Manipulated Man, which she called part of a study on "man's delight in nonfreedom".<ref name="auto"/> In it, she claims that women are not oppressed by men, but rather control men in a relationship that is to their advantage but which most men are not aware of.
Some of the strategies described in her book are:
- Luring men with sex, which she referred to as the "periodic use of a woman's vagina", and other seduction strategies
- Controlling men by the judicious use of praise, sex, and emotional blackmail once they have been lured
- Masking her real intentions and motives in the guise of romantic love
The Manipulated Man was quite popular at the time of its release, in part due to the considerable press coverage it received.<ref>E. Vilar, "Der dressierte Mann", radio-interview (in German) ARD, November 7, 1971. Retrieved in December 19, 2011.</ref>
Vilar appeared on The Tonight Show on February 21, 1973, to discuss the book. In 1975 she was invited to a televised debate<ref>Excerpts from the debate can be seen in the documentary about Alice Schwarzer, available in the "Deutschland - Lenker und Gestalter" series of 12 DVDs released in Germany, and in a recent Schwarzer interview aired in September 27, 2011, and available in the ARD website. The full-42 minute debate can be obtained directly from WDR in DVD here and online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NufFVuXN84.</ref> by WDR with Alice Schwarzer, who became known as the representative of the women's movement at that time. The debate was controversial, with Schwarzer claiming Vilar was:<ref>Im Clinch (in German) Der Spiegel, February 10, 1975. Retrieved December 20, 2011.</ref> "Not only sexist, but fascist", comparing her book with the Nazi newspaper Der Stürmer.<ref>Frau gegen Frau (in German) Die Zeit, June 16, 2005. Retrieved December 20, 2011.</ref>
According to the author, she received death threats over the book:
So I hadn't imagined broadly enough the isolation I would find myself in after writing this book. Nor had I envisaged the consequences which it would have for subsequent writing and even for my private life – violent threats have not ceased to this date.<ref>Esther Vilar, The Manipulated Man, revised edition, August 1998</ref>
Other books
Her play Speer (1998) is a work of fictional biography about the German architect Albert Speer, and has been staged in Berlin and London, directed by and starring Klaus Maria Brandauer. She has also written many other books and plays, but most have not been translated into English.
Selected works
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- Book collecting original series of 3: Der dressierte Mann [The Manipulated Man], Das polygame Geschlecht [The polygamous sex], Das Ende der Dressur (The End of the Manipulation; third part never translated into English). dtv Verlag 1998. Template:ISBN
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See also
References
External links
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- Pinter & Martin, English publishers
- 2021 article titled "Women are spoiled - even today", interviewing Esther (in german)
- 1935 births
- Living people
- Argentine women writers
- Jewish Argentine writers
- Jewish dramatists and playwrights
- Jewish women writers
- Argentine people of German-Jewish descent
- Argentine dramatists and playwrights
- 20th-century Argentine writers
- 20th-century dramatists and playwrights
- 20th-century German writers
- 20th-century German women writers
- Female critics of feminism
- Argentine women dramatists and playwrights
- Masculists
- Writers from Buenos Aires
- University of Buenos Aires alumni
- 20th-century German physicians
- 20th-century German women physicians